Little By Little
by Nesloga
Summary: Five ways to look at them; by them and by others. - Don't worry, they'll eventually figure it out. (TCTC 'verse)


_Word Count: 941_

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5.

Tony, according to half of the Americas and a good portion of Europe, is: a no-good, rotten, spoilt, cheat of a man. That should be institutionalized post haste and given extensive therapy that will hopefully cure him of his many 'issues'. However, when asked the other half of the Americas (and oddly enough Greenland) will state that Tony is: a saint that was sent down to lead the world into a better tomorrow, cliché, but workable. Jack, after getting to know Tony a bit better, is convinced that Tony is a fine mixture of the two.

That Tony is not sugar and spice and everything nice, but nor is he the creepy crawlies that go bump in the night. No, Tony is the anti-hero. He is the man in iron that is constantly trying to right his own wrongs, to fix what he's broken; because Tony's a engineer and a scientist, and that's what he does. Fix and discover. So Tony will try to fix the world and discover a way to bring peace; even if it means bloodying his hands, because, hell, what's a bit more blood when he's the Merchant of Death?

"If you could change it all, would you?"

"Is that a serious question, Frosted Flakes?"

"It sure is, Tin Man."

"No, no I wouldn't."

Tony is irresponsible, disrespectful, and down right annoying sometimes. But he's also the man that saw what his actions had caused and took stock of his life, and after he did, well, he built himself a suit of iron and a heart of light. He made himself _better_. And Jack, Jack can't help but think that's what makes a true hero.

4.

Jack, Tony has discovered, is a obnoxious little brat that doesn't know when to back off and get the hell away from delicate experiments.

"This line, this line right here? You are not to cross it Frosted Flakes. I've lost too many good 'bots to your icy ways."

A snort was the initial answer that Tony received, which was just a tad childish in his opinion. "My icy ways? Really? That's the best you could come up with? It sounds like I'm a temptress or something."

"Who's to say you're _not_?" In reality, both Tony and Jack knew what Jack is and isn't. Jack is a temptress of a sort. He's a herald of cold and winter, a bringer of death in his own right. He's enticed people to their dooms, luring them into sleeping in the dead of winter where all is still and the cold reigns supreme. Jack's taken lives that way; he's stolen years from those foolish enough to believe that Jack Frost is simply a Guardian.

"Right, right."

And Jack knows it.

3.

JARVIS finds that Sir and Mister Frost's relationship is interesting. In the way that it's like a fine toned machine meeting a beaten down clunker, JARVIS isn't sure which one of these two things Sir is.

The two clash, certainly, but they also compute together in a way that JARVIS has never seen his creator bond with another that was not made of metal and circuits. And as long as they bond, as long as they compute at the maximum level JARVIS sees no reason why he should interfere.

"Heeeeeey. Hey, Tony! What's this do?"

"Don't touch tha-!"

"Whoops~"

_Time Stamp: 19:11 - Cleaning Bots One through Ten damaged by Mister Frost, have Repair Bots fix them._

2.

Pepper is wary of the influence that Jack has on Tony. Because Jack is immortal, he's a teen that died and never left this world. He's a ghost to anyone that thinks about it too much; and as a ghost he has no need to feel frightened, to feel the slightest bit of self preservation. Because Jack's already dead. So Jack can come and go and frolic all he wants without worrying about the consequences, but Tony, Tony is tied down by mortal restraints. Sometimes he forgets that while Jack is around.

She's seen it before; when Jack was spinning tales and smiling and sparkling with the shine of freshly fallen snow. His hands would wave and his voice would be brittle as he told story after story, never needing to sleep or stop to eat. But Tony had to, Tony had to and he didn't.

On that particular night she had found Jack talking to Tony and Tony slumped sideways, desperately keeping himself awake as Jack chatted on. Unaware of the deep bags under Tony's eyes or the way that he had paled from lack of food. Tony finally collapsed after she walked in, exhaustion claiming him. They'd had to rush him to the ER that night, he had gone nine days without sleep and six of those days without any food. He was dangerously close to slipping into a coma; and it was all Jack's fault.

1.

Dummy's world is made up of a few simple tasks. Put out any fires. Bring Tony a beverage. Listen to JARVIS. But sometimes he goes past that; he brings the not-beverage to Tony, the glowing circle that makes color return to his downed creator. He also watches for the Icy One. The one that paves the labs floor with ice and leaves puddles of water everywhere. The Icy One is an unknown entity, a creature that does not compute. A being that has no need for smoothies.

"Dummy, Frosted Flakes doesn't want a smoothie! He can't even eat. Can you?"

"Nope, at least, I don't _have_ to."

It is something that will need further watching.

-.

_It may take days, months, years; but eventually they'll get the hang of this 'friend' thing. _


End file.
